Meditations: The Problem with a “Just Tell Me What To Do” Approach to God’s Will
Meditations — By Larry Shallenberger on August 8, 2010 at 8:00 amSeveral years ago a pastor asked me to coach him on some leadership issues. He was a brand new pastor and was having a hard time acclimating to the demands of the job. I remembered what a mess of a leader I was my rookie year, so I agreed to meet with him regularly. The meetings went okay for a while, but there was something missing. There was something about his thinking that wasn’t right, but I just couldn’t put words to what I was seeing. We’d meet, he’d talk, I’d drive away with a crumpled forehead.
One week, the pastor returned from a ministry conference, excited. He went to a mega-church and took in their model for doing ministry. Everything made sense to my friend. “I just needed somebody to tell me what to do! I’ve seen it, I can do it.”
Things did get better for my friend for a time. He introduced the program, generated excitement and worked it for a while. Unfortunately, the program wasn’t designed to be consistent with the story and culture of his church.
“Just tell me what to do” just can’t get things done in the long run.
Several years ago, I read a helpful business book called The Oz Principle. The book helped me understand why we just don’t want to work with somebody who’s always saying, “Just tell me what do to.”
“Just Tell Me What to Do” allows a person to dodge accountability. Point out to a JTMWtD person that he or she isn’t pulling their weight, and they can make the problem you: “Well you obviously didn’t tell me the right things to do.”
“Just Tell Me What to Do” allows a person to be emotionally detached. This attitude allows you to show up, check off a list, and home without investing any of your emotions. The JTMWtD attitude is a defense mechanism that allows you to escape the risk of being a part of a team that lays it on the line for a common good.
“Just Tell Me What to Do” is code for “I’m just here for the paycheck.” There’s no love for the team or the mission in a JTMWtD attitude. It’s a mask for “I’m in this occupation for what I can get out of it, not what I can give back.”
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I wonder if our Christian preoccupation with “discovering God’s unique will for my life” isn’t code for “just tell me what to do.” We don’t like to fail. We also intuitively know that the work of finding our place in God’s story is going to cost us more than we really want to give. So we ask God to just reveal our lives to us like its a paint-by-numbers project.
Meanwhile, I imagine God looking for innovators, risk takers, and lovers. People who are willing to buy into the vision of His order. I wonder if God doesn’t leave His will somewhat vague to increase our emotional investment in His kingdom. He offers us a story and a community of people who are all trying to figure out the same thing: How do we improvise our lives in a way that’s consistent with the story arc of the Bible.
Sure, He could just tell us what to do. But nobody wants to work with that guy. Maybe not even God.
This post originally appeared at www.larryshallenberger.com.
9 Comments
Wonderful post! I agree. God doesn’t want a bunch of paint by number art…he wants to paint like the greats with our lives and that takes risk, bravery, and the creation of deep and incredible beauty…which of course costs much…but is so much better than a boring life. I wonder if God is as bored by how tame many like to live life as I am.
This is so true. I think particularly in painful situations, when you are tempted to not feel the grief. Humans have believed that we can just numb ourselves to the situation, disengaging and entering into a gray shallow existence until the storm quiets. I feel like many times in those gray moments is when I am tempted to cop a JTMWTD mentality. I don’t want to feel what I’m feeling, so I’m just going to zombie walk through the rest of my life. Then we gripe about missing adventure, feeling bored and hopeless. We haven’t learned that life is full of emotion good, bad and ugly. If you stop your heart from being affected by life, then you cease to live.
I agree with the underlying point, but I cannot agree that God doesn’t have individual plans for individuals. Don Miller had a post about this a few months ago, and what’s frustrating is that when I posted Ephesians 2:10, he simply changed his point to say “it’s not like God cares what flavor of coffee you will have tomorrow”, which is a ridiculous thing to say. That verse is in Scripture for a reason, and it is very clear that He is talking to you and me. How someone can read that and say God hasn’t designed you and me the way He has for a reason, for a purpose, is beyond me.
James,
I can’t speak for Don, I’ve never discussed this with him.
I acknowledge that this topic touches on the whole free will/ determinism debate that takes place inside and outside of Christianity.
And I think it’s safe to say that this tension is unresolved in the Bible. Divine judgment only makes sense if there’s free will. And Paul inconveniently writes about election. No where does Paul or Jesus resolve the tension. We’re somehow expected to live within it.
Regarding Ephesians 2:10, I know some Christians who take that to read that God expected me to be at the corner of X and Main, on October 18, 2012 to do a certain good deed. The goal of the Christian life then is to discern this and get there. If I miss this divine appointment then I’ve missed God’s will. I’m not “walking in the good works” that God appointed for me. Personally, I’d drive myself ragged if I viewed those good works as specific events.
However, If I view those prepared good works as “roles” and “strengths” then it’s a much more livable situation. I can see that God made me good at leadership and communication but bad at plumbing and counseling. I’ve been built for a type of good work, and I need to spend my time “walking in them.”
That’s not to say that God doesn’t prompt me to the corner of X and Main from time to time. But I think that’s the exception and not the rule.
First, I want to emphasize that I still agree with your main point. We aren’t to sit around and wait. Generally, I mean. There is that whole Gideon episode where God told them to whittle the army down to 300 soldiers, then watch God take care of business. But that’s not the norm.
When I see Eph 2:10(For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.), I see that God has chosen to shape me through God-given gifts, experiences, and other factors, to fulfill a role, not unlike the way someone who could be an outstanding Left Tackle could never be a good QB. He has not chosen to make me in such a way that I could ever be a children’s pastor, like you. It’s not gonna happen. But there are other things I can do, because of the way He made me. I think this is in perfect line with Scripture.
But I don’t think this is affected either way by the free will/predestination argument. He designed you to be a pastor, but you still had free will to do something else. It’s my contention, though, that you wouldn’t have made a good Left Tackle. And that’s the point. When we exercise our free will to yield our lives to Him, we’ll more likely to excel in advancing His agenda on the earth.
And where do you come off calling me a really smart guy? We both know that ain’t true.
So I take it we’re in basic agreement?
I guess the issue is “how much detail” does God plan for individuals.
My guess is enough that we need to exercize much freedom.
Larry,
Great article, as always. I think the point is that we should be searching out God’s will. But, what we should be searching for is what he wants done, not necessarily how to do it. When we can align our will with God’s will, the results can be extraordinary. In order to do that, we have to understand God’s will, which means we have to search for it. I agree with you, however, that God wants us to use the gifts he has uniquely chosen for us to accomplish the “what” of his will without dictating the “how.” Thanks for the thought provoking article and discussion.
Wayne Stocks
Dad in the Middle (http://waynestocks.com)
Kidmin1124 (http://Kidmin1124,com)
Love it. This is a nice, fresh take on this topic.
One of the biggest miracles of the Christian walk is that God builds your character. Sometimes God will just tell me what to do, but more often it’s a continued labor of allowing God to sculpt my character, slowly making a fool like me into a person of wisdom and sound judgment. That creates those beautiful moments where we don’t have to stress about what God’s will is because it’s obvious.